


The Valkyrie

by Geonn



Category: Inglourious Basterds (2009)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-05-30
Updated: 2011-05-30
Packaged: 2017-10-19 22:26:52
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,089
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/205885
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Geonn/pseuds/Geonn
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Shosanna runs the projector.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Valkyrie

The first time Shosanna went inside was because it was dark. She had been running for what felt like years, shaking and sobbing from fear and hunger. She huddled in the back row of seats, not even caring what was on the screen at the front of the room. She just wanted to rest and hide. After the first picture ended, the people left her alone in the theatre. It was the biggest room she had ever been in by herself, and she was comforted by its size. She finally fell asleep curled in the chair, not waking until Ada Mimieux woke her. Ada could have called her a thief, thrown her out onto the curb with curses, but she understood that Shosanna wasn't there to watch a free film. So she was kind, and gave Shosanna milk and bread.

Ada gave Shosanna a place to sleep, and told her that she could earn it by working at the cinema. She sold tickets, popcorn, candy, and cleaned the theatre between shows. Marcel taught her how to do everything in the theatre, from running the projector to preparing the film. Christmas was a year after Shosanna arrived and her gift to Ada and Marcel was to allow them to see a movie just like their patrons. So made them walk up to the box office in the lightly falling snow to buy tickets (she refunded the money immediately) and sold them buckets of popcorn. Then she ran up the stairs to begin the projector.

The movie was German, a fact that turned her stomach. But it had been filmed before the war started, so she felt it was acceptable enough. Plus she couldn't stop looking at the movie poster. Bridget von Hammersmark, resplendent in a red gown with her hair done up. She wore a veil over her eyes and her lips were blood red. She looked like a valkyrie, a true femme fatale. Shosanna loved her and wanted to see the movie that would be advertised in such a way.

The lights dimmed, and Shosanna started the projector. She wished she had a cigarette, but smoking was strictly forbidden in the film room. She sat on a stool and leaned forward to peer through the little window. Marcel and Ada were happily munching popcorn. Occasionally she saw Marcel peer up toward her and she smiled at him and gave him a wink.

The movie began. Bridget von Hammersmark was a young woman at a train station, dressed in drab clothing with limp hair. She was clutching a bag with both hands and lightly touched a dark bruise on her cheek. A tear slipped free. A conductor shouted, "All aboard!" and the actress shook herself and stepped toward the train. It showed the train racing through the countryside, with Bridget starting out the window at the passing terrain.

Shosanna hadn't been able to afford a train ticket, but the scene was all too familiar. Traveling without seeing. Adrift in the world, lost and alone. She felt as if she could look in a mirror and see Bridget's elegant features gazing back at her. This was her story. She sat riveted by the tale of the abusive husband who finally forced Bridget to run. She went to Claude, a man who was supposed to help her instead betrayed her by trying to have his way with her. The bag Bridget clutched so defiantly was filled with ten thousand francs, and both her husband and Claude were willing to kill her to get it back.

With each passing frame, she watched Bridget transform. She went from frightened prey to determined predator. She decided to stop running and set a trap for her pursuers. Claude, the man who was supposed to help her, who had asked for payment in the form of Bridget's body, arrived in the small French town where she was hiding. Bridget sent an anonymous telegram to her mother - knowing it would be intercepted by her husband - claiming that she and her co-conspirator Claude were now lovers and safely hidden.

The husband arrived and found Claude in his small hostel. There was a fight, a shootout, and Claude was killed. Bridget's husband attempted to flee, but she had already alerted the police. They found him with the murder weapon and Claude's blood covering his clothing. The husband was arrested and, as he was driven away, he saw Bridget von Hammersmark watching from a top-floor window, dressed as she had been in the poster. She smiled and saluted him with her cigarette as the police drove him away.

That night, Shosanna lay in bed and thought about Bridget. Her strength and resolve, her power to make the men in her life pay for what they had done. She bent her knees under the blankets and put a hand between her legs. She thought of the scene where Claude attempted to take advantage of Bridget, how her blouse had torn and she'd struggled to cover herself for the rest of the scene. The strap of her brassiere and the curve of her bare shoulder...

Shosanna touched herself as she held the image in her mind. She wanted to cut that moment from the film and hold it up to the moonlight so the ghostly image would be projected onto her face. She wanted to find the woman in the movie. Not Bridget von Hammersmark, but the character. Shosanna would beg her for help. She would offer the woman her body, and together they would defeat Hans Landa of the SS. She thought of kissing those blood-red lips and lifting that veil to look into her eyes. Undressing her and laying naked with her while they plotted the death of the Nazis.

Shosanna stayed quiet while she came. Being quiet came naturally to her after hiding for so long. She closed her thighs, crossed her ankles, and arched her back until her breathing returned to normal. She drew the blankets higher on her chest and rolled onto her side, looking out the window to the purple-black sky.

The woman in the movie was not real, she knew that. Bridget von Hammersmark was a German actress and probably Heiled with the rest of the Nazi scum. So it was up to Shosanna. She swore that one day she would be the valkyrie and the Nazis would know her vengeance. Her lips curled into a smile as she closed her eyes, and she spoke softly into her pillow.

"Bonsoir, Bridget von Hammersmark... wherever you are."


End file.
